The preppy clothier — a favorite of First Lady Michelle Obama — said yesterday it’s selling itself to a pair of private-equity shops for $3 billion, a move that will allow CEO Mickey Drexler to make a boatload of cash from the transaction.

But another key reason for the deal is that Drexler is looking for capital to expand J. Crew internationally — and he wants to do so out of the public eye, sources told The Post.

J. Crew is “poised to build an international network, which will ultimately be powerful,” according to one source briefed on the retailer’s plans. “But in the early stages, they may have growing pains, and being private is an appropriate response.”

This year, J. Crew inked a deal with global shopping Web site Net-A-Porter, which has allowed distribution of its fashions in 170 countries.

But otherwise, J. Crew has been shy about international expansion, a challenge that has been riddled with pitfalls for US retail chains, including Gap when Drexler was its president in the 1990s.

Officials at Gap and TPG — a Texas-based firm that’s leading a buyout of J. Crew for a second time after taking the retailer public in 2006 — declined to comment.

Drexler, a Bronx native, is a legendary merchant in the US. As CEO of Gap, he had once been bold enough to order “everyone in khakis,” in the words of one notorious ad campaign.

But his track record in other countries has been spotty. Gap stores in France, Germany and the UK struggled throughout Drexler’s tenure even as domestic growth boomed.

“You’d have to guess that Mickey is still a little skittish about [J. Crew] growing internationally, given what happened at Gap,” said one source close to the situation.